In early 2009, thousands of the best young dancers in the world showed up to try out for Michael Jackson’s comeback shows in London. The auditions were huge. Only a handful would make it.
One of them was a 21-year-old named Kriyss Grant. He got picked. And the stories he brought home are some of the sweetest we have from Michael’s final months.
Here’s the first one. During rehearsals for the “This Is It” concerts, the dancers kept messing up. Not because the steps were hard. Because they couldn’t stop staring at the man standing a few feet away from them.
Michael noticed. He gently told them to stop dancing full out and save their energy. His reason was simple and kind, and it tells you everything about how he thought about the people who paid to see him.
A young “This Is It” dancer remembers what Michael was really like
Watch Kriyss light up when he talks about it. You can tell these weeks changed his life.
What did Michael tell them? “Save it for the fans. Save it for the audience.” He didn’t want them burning out in practice. He wanted the full magic saved for the people in the seats.
But the part Kriyss keeps coming back to happened at the end of each practice.
Every day, when the work was done, the dancers would form a line. Kriyss said they lined up “like little kids,” waiting their turn. And one by one, Michael would give each of them a hug before everyone went home.
“His hugs were so warming and had so much love,” Kriyss said.
Think about that for a second. These were tired, grown professionals at the top of their field. And at the end of a long day, they stood in line like kids at recess, just to get a hug from the boss.
That’s not something a cold or distant man inspires. You don’t wait in line for a hug from someone you’re scared of. You wait because you feel safe, and because the person at the front of the line makes you feel like you matter.
Kriyss was one of the lucky few who got to stand in that room day after day. He saw Michael up close, the way hardly anyone ever did, as a gentle man who hugged his dancers goodnight after the music stopped.
The interview above lets him tell the whole thing himself, in his own words, with the kind of warmth you only get from someone who was really there. Give it a listen and let a young dancer’s memory remind you who Michael was when the cameras were off.